KABUL: Hundreds of Afghans stoned and burnt offices of foreign aid agencies on Tuesday after rumours one was trying to convert Sunni Muslims to a minority sect and women staff had been assaulted, officials said.

Up to 10 local and foreign staff of the Agha Khan Development Network and another foreign aid agency, Medair, were beaten or stoned in Faizabad, capital of the northern province of Badakhshan, Nick Downie, head of the Afghanistan NGO Security Office said. He said none of the injuries were serious.

Downie said according to the reports he had from the Faizabad, several offices of non-governmental organisations may have been attacked and a rocket may have hit one. He said aid agency vehicles were also burned.

Two government officials, who did not want to be identified, said the attack was provoked by rumours the Agha Khan Development Network was using its aid projects to convert Sunni Muslims to the Ismaili sect of Islam, of which the Agha Khan is the spiritual head.

But a senior official of the aid agency, who also did not want to be identified by name, said the attack was the result of a misunderstanding involving two local female employees.

He said the women had become delirious after working to fortify wheat in a poorly aired room and a rumour spread that they had been deliberately drugged and sexually assaulted.

"Both the women and the hospital said this was not true, but the rumour spread like wildfire," he said, adding that it was against the Agha Khan foundation's philosophy to attempt conversions.

Police intervened to disperse the attackers, who numbered about 1,000, and no serious injuries were reported. German troops from the NATO-commanded Provincial Reconstruction Team in the province helped take five NGO workers to a rescue centre.

Medair said both local and international staff were injured in the incident, which it said was "over an issue unrelated to Medair staff or activities in Afghanistan".

It said some staff were being moved to Kabul.

Ismailis, who follow a Shia sect of Islam, are a small minority in Afghanistan. Some live in remote areas of Badakhshan, a poor mountainous region near the border with Tajikistan, where the sect has tens of thousands of followers.

The sect is looked down upon by some hardline Sunni clerics and its followers were persecuted during the rule of the hardline Taliban until 2001.

Since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban, the Agha Khan has set up a range of aid projects in the country and has launched the second-largest mobile telephone firm, called Roshan.